Amy Zucker Morgenstern (she or they)

I'm in Minneapolis because we are all connected. I weep for my neighbors who are harassed and scapegoated. I love the next generation and want to leave them a country that is free of authoritarian rule. I'll keep fighting for them all. #ICEOUT

For decades the NRA and other gun nuts told us that their guns were to protect us all from a tyrannical government. So a tyrannical government is here, they are all sitting on their asses, and the people who want gun control have taken to the streets to defy the tyrannical government instead.

Same view, intersection now half-full of protesters.

Crowd at 24th and Mission, SF, is large and growing. Lots of us on the other three corners. A line of cop motorcycles is a block away. Here's hoping they stay there.

This aged well.

It's hard to overstate how destructive the reflexive "this is a distraction!" stuff that politicians and commentators and people are always peddling. Everything is happening all at once. That's how authoritarianism works. If you can't navigate and synthesize this, you're not meeting the moment.

“Poor man wanna be rich. Rich man wanna be king. The king ain’t satisfied ‘til he rules everything.”—Springsteen, Badlands

This is how you do it. While law firms, Paramount, and so many others are lining up to be shaken down, the Detroit Opera House is speaking truth to power. Today I'm asking myself, "What's the thing I can do in my job to push back hardest against fascism?" What's yous?

Oh.

Adopted so long ago (17 years) that I've forgotten the name of the rescue organization: Luna.

What say you, @nytimes.com ?

Wait, why doesn't Trump want us to know how high the tariff is on each purchase? Isn't that the point: that we'll recognize the cost of buying foreign-made, reject that choice, and insist on US-made goods, thereby driving up US manufacturing? It's not nearly as effective if we don't see the tariffs.

A headline from Hell. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04...

"Pro-life"

A Lancet preprint estimates that if US funding is cut and not replaced, from 2025-2040 there will be 15.2 mil add'l AIDS deaths, 2.2 mil add'l TB deaths, 7.9 mil add'l child deaths from other causes, and 40-55 mil add'l unplanned pregnancies. @altusaid.altgov.info papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Also, I now have lots of unused Franklin Covey planner supplies to give away on my Buy Nothing group. It's a good approach to planning. These records of my past glowered at me from their shelf for years for no good reason. #Anxiety 3/3

You know what? I've done this job well DESPITE all those unfinished tasks. That's just life. It's not failure on an epic scale. And all those tasks jotted down on calendars from 2004, 2009, 2016 are the evidence of love, care, and hard work in a good cause. 2/3

In purge of my office prior to my semi-retirement June 30, I finally took a deep breath and dove into the volumes of past planners. They are an anxious and perfectionistic person's nightmare, redolent of plans never achieved, to-do lists with unchecked boxes . . . 1/3

If we refrained from doing any good things that also made us look good in other people's eyes, we'd grind to a halt fast. Van Hollen could have been more modest by doing it all under the radar, but OTOH. making noise as he did it was part of what put pressure on both governments.

DOGE's original goal: cut $1 trillion from the budget. DOGE's revised goal: cut $150 billion from the budget. So many zeroes get confusing, so I checked carefully. Their new goal is 15% of their original goal. Think that will be on Musk's "Five things I did this week" list?

Stall, stall, stall. It's part of Trump's m.o.

God bless Senator Chris Van Hollen. May he be successful in his endeavor. #BringHimHome.

Let's put this in a language the administration understands: international tourism contributes $150-200 billion a year to the US economy, supporting over a million US jobs.

www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...

Here I am with Raging Granny Ruth, Batman, and a fine defender of democracy whose name I don't know. There were at least eight folks from our congregation there. www.probonophoto.org/2025/15Apr25...

This protest was just called yesterday, I learned about it this a.m., and I got there. Alfred Leung of Pro Bono Photo got lots of great pictures. And Batman was there, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Oh wait, wrong guy's slogan. But he was! www.probonophoto.org/2025/15Apr25...

The problem with the sovereign is the absolute and arbitrary power over life and death. On one hand, the pardon. On the other, the gulag. All the progress we've had since the Magna Carta is where?

Props to the Tucson airport TSA staff, who were notably cheerful and friendly this morning. Proof that you don't have to be grouchy, impatient, and power-abusing just because you're in a position of enforcement. Someone's doing good leadership there.

important context about the concentration camps in el salvador:

The president told a Central American dictator to build five more massive slave labor camps to hold US citizens.

Fight fiercely, Harvard! *sends alumni org money*

What happens to normal people when we defy court orders: we're arrested.

I just want to tip my hat to the crack team of White House economists who were able to discover--in just a few short days--that the U.S. is dependent on China for smartphones, computers and semiconductors.

David Hockney

Iconic Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur, who served in the Marine Corps, has had her contribution scrubbed from Department of Defence website

Raskin: "Look at how sick that is. Basically anybody who has rendered any ruling they disapprove of they think should be removed from the bench. Any lawyer who has ever represented a party adverse to them they think should be cleared out of the way. That is in naked opposition to the rule of law."

Some personal news: the Department of Homeland Security has given me, an immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts, seven days to leave the U.S. Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?

My dads memorial service is this morning. www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

NEW: Join us for the Arts Praxis Showcase on Saturday, April 26, 2025, from 1:00–3:00 PM CT in United’s chapel and online!